The celebration kicks off with a week full of events during the week of Aug. 18-22, 2014 at the Muhlenberg Job Corps Center.

Started in 1964 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, the program provides career technical training and education for low-income young people ages 16 through 24. Since opening the first of what would become 125 centers, the program has trained more than 2.7 million young people.

Celebration events at the Muhlenberg Job Corps Center include:

3 p.m. Monday, August 18 – 50th Anniversary Balloon Release

3 p.m. Tuesday, August 19 – Time Capsule Burial

3 p.m. Wednesday, August 20 – Proclamation Signing and Reception

9 a.m. Friday, August 22 – Job Corps Commencement Graduation

“The staff and students are all very excited to be able to show off the skills they have learned at Job Corps,” said Eric Jones, Center Director. “It is also important that we provide an opportunity to show the community all the great things that are going on at our center.”

Students from Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, Virginia, North and South Carolinas, come to Muhlenberg Job Corps Center, including Anne Marie Scheer, a female who has been training in the non-traditional trade of Heavy Equipment Operating. Scheer hopes to graduate from the program soon and begin her career as a Construction Equipment Mechanic or Commercial Truck Driver.

Job Corps provides hands-on training in more than 100 career technical areas ranging from automotive and machine repair to information technology and renewable resources. The programs are aligned with industry credentials and include work-based learning.

Job Corps is the nation’s largest and oldest federally funded career training and education program. It enrolls nearly 60,000 students annually at 125 Job Corps centers across the country. For more information about the program, call Karen Robinson, Business Community Liaison, (270) 377-3269 or visit www.recruiting.jobcorps.gov. Also, check us out on Facebook.